Four NUI Galway PhD students Paul Lohan, Ana Cimpian, Sean Gaynard and Fiona Griffin, reached the final of the Ireland Fund Business Plan competition held at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Tuesday, 19 June, 2012.

Their innovative medical device business proposition, created as part of their participation in the BioInnovate Ireland programme, secured the team joint third place. BioInnovate Ireland is a specialist training and collaboration programme in medical device innovation. It is modelled on Stanford University’s prestigious Biodesign Programme.

This competition seeks out the best business ideas from nine Universities across Ireland. The team of four who worked on this project since last November are first-year PhD students in the Structured PhD Programme in Biomedical Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (BMERM).

For the competition, 19 teams were shortlisted for the semi-finals, from a large pool of applicants, from which four teams were selected for the final based on their business plan sales pitch to the judging panel.

Professor Peter McHugh, Director of BMERM at NUI Galway, commented: “This is a fantastic achievement for the students, the BioInnovate and BMERM programmes and the University. It really shows the synergy that can be achieved between programmes to deliver a ‘best in class’ graduate and further demonstrates NUI Galway’s leadership position in the medical technology area.”

Dr Mark Bruzzi BioInnovate Ireland Programme Director added that the interaction between the postgraduate multi-disciplinary teams and the BioInnovate Ireland Fellows, Academics, Clinicians and Industry Experts has produced a class of students who will have a significant long-term impact on the graduate medical technology market place in Ireland.

The BioInnovate Ireland programme offers a unique medical device innovation training opportunity. It has achieved unparalleled access to Ireland’s leading academic researchers, clinicians, and industry experts, while the activity is underpinned by world-class facilities available through the support network.

BMERM is an inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional structured PhD programme, led by NUI Galway, that is funded under the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions (PRTLI) Cycle 5 and co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).